Digital Retreat Summary
by CCPC on March 27, 2022
| Courageous Conversations on Race, Diversity, and Loving One Another |
August 21-23, 2020
Sponsored by
CCPC’s Race & Diversity Task Force
Summary
31 members participated, plus Rev. John Molina-Moore from the National Capital Presbytery, and our excellent facilitator, Carlesa Finney. Ms. Finney came highly recommended by Kevin Maxwell, who knew we needed her skillful guidance.
To facilitate our digital retreat, we welcomed the expertise of Carlesa Finney, who among many other qualifications, served ten years (1993-2003) on the Anne Arundel County Public Schools school board and eight years, starting in 2006, with Dr. Kevin Maxwell as the Executive Director of the Office of Equity and Human Relations. Ms. Finney currently serves as a consultant for Strategic Alliances International.
Friday, August 21
Several members joined the evening Netflix Watch Party, to view the challenging documentary, "13th." Others watched the movie independently, and joined us on Zoom afterwards. We stayed up late that evening, discussing what we learned. Thanks to Sara and Justin for their extreme patience teaching us new technologies!
Saturday, August 22
On Saturday morning, we heard some history and context for our current concerns about racial injustice. In breakout groups, we explored our feelings about what we had learned.
In the afternoon, we brainstormed possible responses and actions our congregation might consider in shining the light of Christ on this darkness. We came up with quite a list.
Sunday, August 23
Task Force members were the primary participants in this week's worship serivce, streamed on Facebook.
| If you can help us defray the cost of an honorarium for Ms. Finney's work with us, please donate through our website, choosing "Other", and writing "Race and Diversity Task Force" in the box. Thank you for supporting this retreat and helping to build our funds for such future endeavors. |
Moving Forward
CCPC's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee, which held its first meeting at the end of June 2020, meets regularly (via Zoom) on the 1st Saturday of the month. We have a group email address to share our agendas and ongoing conversations around the topic of racial justice. If you would like to be added to that group list, please email Dennis Evans at Dennis@EvansOpticalEngineering.com.
